By John Sullivan
Times Herald-Record
Washingtonville — The only light inside St. Anne’s Episcopal Church this Monday night is that of a small lamp next to a CD player emitting a composition of flute and electronic keyboard music.
Standing next to the lamp on an exercise mat is Linda Dougherty, instructing her students to bend forward with legs apart and arms outstretched.
“Think: ‘Oh God, let me bow down in front of you in honor of you,'” she said.
Such pronouncements pepper the entirety of the 45 to 50 minute session of bending, stretching and meditating that Dougherty teaches at the Washingtonville church each week. It’s part of a growing Christian yoga movement that has recently entered our region, joining Eastern techniques in health and spiritual fitness with the West’s largest religion.
The rise of the trend in 2005 brought criticism from Christian and Hindu purists, who believed the Indian spiritual roots of yoga were irreconcilable with the West’s religion.
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For more information on “Christian” yoga (an oxymoron), see the following resources:
Yoga and the Body of Christ by Dave Hunt
